Render crash
Also known as: export crash, failed export
An export that stops partway or takes the application with it, almost always at the end of a long session and usually caused by one clip.
Updated
What it means
A render crash is a failure during output rather than during editing. The Timeline is fine, and something in the process of writing a file is not. The distinction narrows the search.
The cause is usually specific rather than general. One effect, one clip, one format, and the export dies in the same place on every attempt. That is good news.
Repeatability is the useful property. A crash at the same timecode is a diagnosable problem; a crash at a random point points at hardware or memory, and the two need different answers.
How it works in practice
Bisecting the timeline finds it fast. Exporting halves and then quarters locates the offending section in a few attempts, which beats guessing at settings. The timeline tells you where.
Plugins are the first suspect. Disabling effects on the failing section is the quickest test, and a Plugin is responsible more often than the application is.
Exporting in sections is a legitimate answer. Two halves joined afterwards deliver the same file, and a Rendering and export that completes is worth more than one that is elegant. Nobody can see how a file was made.
What to watch out for
A damaged source file is a common cause. A Camera crash file or a clip with Corrupted frames exports fine until the decoder reaches the damage. Repairing the clip is the fix.
Full disks produce it too. An export needs room for the output and for temporary files, and a drive that fills mid-write fails in a way that looks like a software fault.
Mixed frame rates and formats raise the odds. A timeline of Variable frame rate (VFR) phone clips, 4K camera files and screen recordings asks more of an encoder than a consistent one does, and encoders fail where they are asked the most.
How RawClip handles it
Processing happens away from the person's machine, so a long export cannot fail on their hardware or fill their disk. A damaged source clip is skipped rather than allowed to stop the run, and the rest of the session still produces a result.